BMW announced it is expanding capacity at its U.S. plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina, by 50 percent to 450,000 vehicles from 300,000 currently. In order to do that, the company will invest $1 billion, with the plant set to become BMW Group’s biggest facility in the world.

Spartanburg is BMW’s center of competence for X vehicles, having manufactured so far the X3, X5, X5 M, X6 and X6 M. Starting from March 28, the plant also builds the BMW X4, with CEO Norbert Reithofer also announcing a further expansion of the X model family.

“With the BMW X7, we are developing another, larger X model, which we will produce at our U.S. plant for our world markets – once again underscoring our commitment to the U.S,” the executive said.

The plant’s expansion will also increase the number of employees at the U.S. facility significantly. “Expansion at the site will create 800 new jobs, bringing the total workforce in Spartanburg to 8,800. It will also make Spartanburg the largest plant in terms of production capacity in our global production network,” Reithofer said.

Since the start of production in 1994, Spartanburg has built more than 2.6 million vehicles. The models BMW X3, X5, X5 M, X6 and X6 M are all produced at the plant, with a plug-in hybrid version of the BMW X5 to follow in the near future.

A total of 297,326 vehicles were manufactured in Spartanburg in 2013, with around 1,100 vehicles currently produced per working day. The Spartanburg site presently employs around 8,000 staff.